Sweetwater Brewing Wins Gold at GABF

ATLANTA — Georgia’s largest craft brewery brought home a gold from the nation’s touted “Super Bowl of Beer Festivals” held in Denver, CO throughout the weekend. During Saturday’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF) award ceremony, the SweetWater team was presented with a gold medal in the Rye Beer category for their LowRYEder India Pale Ale.

LowRYEder joined SweetWater’s year-round lineup in August 2012. The flame-throwin’ IPA is ignited with a 25% shot of rye malt and brewed with Columbus, Mt. Hood and Centennial hops, then dry-hopped with Centennial and Mt. Hood to give this one a little extra bounce. With 6.2% ABV and 45 IBUs, this LowRYEder gets a little higher.

Presented by the Brewer’s Association, the GABF competition represents the largest collection of U.S. beer ever served, in the format of a public tasting and private competition. This year, GABF evaluated 138 beer styles across 84 categories, pouring more than 48,000 gallons of beer. As reported from the Brewers Association, the competition made an economic impact of $7 million to the city of Denver in 2012 and saw 49,000 attendees return for the action in 2013.

“What a great honor it is to bring home another distinguished piece of GABF hardware as these medals represent the best brews throughout the nation,” said SweetWater Co-Founder and Big Kahuna Freddy Bensch. “I’ve got to recognize the passion that our brewers pump in to making our beers. This win further confirms that we’re doing exactly what we believe in — making fresh, quality beer.”

With this win, SweetWater has been awarded 14 total wins from GABF throughout its 16 years of entries, including its most cherished honor of Small Brewery of the Year Award back in 2002.

SweetWater Brewing Company is an AtlantaÔÇÉbased craft brewery following the motto “Don’t Float the Mainstream!” SweetWater’s brews are unpasteurized and designed to be consumed fresh so distribution is limited to the Southeast. The awardÔÇÉwinning lineup of yearÔÇÉround brews includes SweetWater 420, IPA, Blue, LowRYEder and Georgia Brown. SweetWater also features a Catch and Release series of beers available on a limited basis throughout the year, and an experimental, oneÔÇÉtimeÔÇÉonly Dank Tank series. SweetWater Brewery, open for tours every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 5:30ÔÇÉ7:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 2:30ÔÇÉ4:30 p.m., is located at 195 Ottley Drive in Atlanta. For more information about SweetWater Brewing Company, please visit www.sweetwaterbrew.com. For more of a social relationship with SweetWater Brewing Company follow @sweetwaterbrew on Twitter and Instagram, and become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sweetwaterbrew.